Orc: Open Source Multi-Project Orchestrator for AI Coding Agents
Orc is an open source multi-project orchestrator for Claude Code and other agentic CLIs, built to coordinate AI coding agents across every project on your machine. It uses bash, tmux, and git worktrees to manage multiple instances running in parallel.
Key Features
The tool addresses common problems when running multiple Claude Code instances: merge conflicts, duplicated work, lack of review gates, and token burn on coordination overhead. Orc takes a simpler approach compared to other solutions, using a mental model that maps directly to how real software teams work.
How It Works
You describe the work, and the project orchestrator automatically scouts your codebase, pulling in project context (structure, conventions, existing specs) before planning. It then assembles goals, breaks those into beads (focused work items), and spawns engineers in isolated git worktrees.
Every piece of work goes through a two-tier review loop:
- Short-cycle dev review on each bead before it merges to the goal branch
- Optional long-cycle goal review on the full deliverable before it ships
You control both review types by plugging in your own review tool or describing standards in plain English:
[review.dev]
review_instructions = "Focus on security: check for SQL injection, XSS, and auth bypass."Interface and Compatibility
The tmux session is orchestrated into a managed TUI. Each goal gets its own window with the goal orchestrator on the left and engineers plus ephemeral reviewers stacked on the right. You can see all work in progress, navigate to any agent, and hijack a session to pair with it or take over entirely. Status indicators on every window provide at-a-glance visibility.
Orc is fully compatible with spec-driven development—point it at your specs and the orchestrator works from them.
Technical Details
- Claude Code is the default agent with a first-class adapter (--append-system-prompt for prompt delivery, slash commands install to ~/.claude/commands/orc/)
- Also works with OpenCode, Codex, Gemini CLI, or any custom binary
- YOLO mode skips all confirmation gates but still escalates on merge conflicts and blocked engineers
- Coordination is file-based signals, not agent-to-agent conversation—zero tokens burned on orchestration overhead
- Runtime is bash, tmux, and git
- State is three files
- Setup takes five minutes
The tool is available at https://github.com/spencermarx/orc.
📖 Read the full source: r/ClaudeAI
👀 See Also
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A free, open-source Claude Code skill called /unzuck scans feeds across Hacker News, Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter/X, Instagram, and Facebook in parallel using browser automation, scores items against user interest profiles, and generates interactive HTML dashboards.
SLayer: An Open-Source Semantic Layer for AI Agents That Learns from Queries
SLayer is a lightweight, embeddable semantic layer that lets AI agents query databases, manage models, and learn from interactions via MCP, REST, CLI, or Python.
read-once: A Claude Code Hook That Prevents Redundant File Reads
A developer built a PreToolUse hook called read-once that tracks files Claude Code has already read in a session, blocking re-reads of unchanged files and using diffs for changed files. The tool saves thousands of tokens per session by preventing Claude from repeatedly reading the same file content.
RCFlow: Open-source orchestrator for Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode with multi-session management
RCFlow is an AGPL v3 orchestrator for AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode) providing a unified UI to manage parallel sessions across machines, with worktree support, task planning, artifact tracking, and live telemetry.